Ascent of Mount Moosilauke on 2011-09-10

Ascent Trip Report

Went hiking for the weekend with an old friend, Chris Nastasi. My first hike since finishing the NH 4Ks in fall 2007, his first NH hike. Arrived at 8:45AM and parked, a fair number of cars already in place along the road. Hit the trail at 9AM, made terrific time climbing up, arriving at the summit right around 11:30AM. Trail was in excellent shape for being only a couple weeks removed of Hurricane Irene, which tore through the NorthEast and closed a number of trails and roads in NH. Only thing of note was one of the stream crossings on the lower portion of the Gorge Brook Trail had severely eroded banks, but the crossing was only mildly difficult. the bridge at the start of the trail had clearly had some work done on it in the last 2 weeks.

360 Visibility was outstanding, far better than the first time I was up this peak, with views from Mount Washington that day reported in excess of 100 miles. Could easily see Lake Winnipisaukee, Mount Washington, and others. Few thin clouds here and there, very high ceiling.

Very windy at the top! We huddled among the rocks and cooked a Mountain House and munched on other foods for lunch. Hung there for about an hour, there were quite a few people up there, probably near 75, including what looked to be a group of Dartmouth students (there was some sort of student event going on at the lodge this weekend for the freshmen). Quite a number of dogs too, saw probably 15-20 along the trails and on the summit. Wish the owners of a couple notables would have kept them out of the alpine vegetation though. Most were very well-behaved though.

Left summit around 12:30, omitting the South Summit because we though it was along the Carriage Road, not the Glencliff Trail. Uneventful descent, back at the car by 2:30PM. I love this loop, easy grade, good footing, great views from an exposed summit, and a great break-in hike for Chris's first 4K!